The provincial government of Maguindanao dispersed last Thursday 61 water buffaloes to former Moro rebels as an intervention meant to boost their productivity under the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program.

Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and his constituent-mayors led the dispersal of the water buffaloes in a simple rite at Barangay Popol in Buluan town in the second district of Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Mangudadatu and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles have been jointly implementing several PAMANA projects in the province as part of efforts to address underdevelopment in areas devastated by armed conflicts.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) also has dozens of on-going PAMANA projects in other ARMM provinces benefiting former guerillas of the Moro National Liberation Front that fought the government during the 1970s until the group signed the final GPH-MNLF accord on September 2, 1996.

Hundreds of ethnic Maguindanaon families have been benefiting from the joint PAMANA projects of the office of Mangudadatu and OPAPP that were launched in recent years.

Among the on-going PAMANA projects in Maguindanao are livelihood interventions for Moro folks engaged in indigenous crafts. Core shelters have also been built for impoverished families in selected sites through the PAMANA initiative.

The office of Mangudadatu is presently constructing a multi-million “women’s center” beside the provincial government’s satellite operations center in Buluan with the help of OPAPP.

Bilaterally funded by the provincial government and OPAPP, the building, once completed, will be utilized as a center for various projects and programs intended to empower Maguindanao’s “tri-people women sector,” which is comprised of Moro, Christian and indigenous non-Moro women residing in its 36 towns.

Mayors of towns that received the water buffaloes dispersed on Thursday lauded the PAMANA program for its continuing interventions meant to hasten the restoration of normalcy in areas virtually made poor by conflicts in decades past.

South Upi Mayor Abdullah Campong, whose town is one of the beneficiaries of the PAMANA animal dispersal activity, said the assistance will improve the productivity of his constituents.